Failure of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform

Failure of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform

There were numerous reasons that accounted for why the campaign for

Parliamentary reform failed in its objectives in the period 1780-1820,

with arguably the most significant factor being that those in

Parliament did not actually feel the need to reform the electoral

system because of the lack of unified pressure from the British

public. There was a substantial call for Parliamentary reform between

1780 and 1820, but the separate groups which were pressing for reform

did not unite and failed to appeal to the wider regions of the

population and therefore, reform was not at the top of the agenda

between these decades. The representation of Britain in the House of

Commons certainly did not reflect the composition of the country, as

Cornwall sent 44 members to Parliament, which was only one fewer than

the whole of Scotland combined. Large industrial towns such as

Manchester and Birmingham, consisting of 320,000 people, did not send

a single representative to the upper chamber of Parliament. Various

rules and qualifications such as a minimum level of income and

possessing a large enough fireplace were often required to vote in a

General Election, rules which were being called into question by

various groups in society such as the London Corresponding Society.

However, although these aspects of Parliament were clearly

undemocratic, the campaign for reform failed because the general

British public did not impose their views on those in power which

would result in reform coming about within Britain's sole governing

body.

Parliamentary reform was not the only target of reformist proposals ...

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...isciplined army which reduced the level of

activities that radicals could carry out at street level. The fact

that support for reform was generally concentrated in small areas

meant that there was no realistic chance of any sort of uprising

occurring as in France, because there wasn't consistent support for

reform across the whole country.

The main reason why parliamentary reform failed in its objectives from

1780 to 1820 was the fact that those in parliament, who were

realistically the only collective group of individuals who would bring

about reform, would only legislate for its own reform under threat.

The simple fact of the matter was that the different groups arguing

for reform did not threaten Parliament, as they did not wield a large

support base and used different methods to achieve their different

goals.